Everything seemed to move in slow motion as I stood and watched Draco fall to the ground. He had a question in his eyes that had made them look sad. Tears penetrated my eyes as I looked up at my brother, who didn’t look like he cared in the slightest. I rushed over to Draco and kneeled over him. He was staring up at me with a look of confusion on his face.
“Draco,” I whispered and touched his face
“I must’ve been hit pretty hard with that stunning spell,” Draco whispered to himself before standing and looking at me properly. “Or you’re playing a trick on me, Potter.” His voice cracked with the accusation.
I shook my head but wasn’t able to say anything because someone else had appeared. I looked over to see Blaise Zambini coming out of the brush with a smirk on his face. I smiled at him, relieved that he had been the other one that was tailing us. He had his wand drawn and pointed at Marcus and with a chuckle he lowered it.
“Flint,” he said, taking another step forward. “I would’ve have thought that we would see you here. I mean, I haven’t seen you since the day before we were supposed to be branded together. I never thought that you would run off and join the other side.”
“Well, I’m full of surprises, Zambini,” my brother chuckled.
Draco and I still hadn’t broken our eye contact. I so just wanted to run up and out my arms around him and kiss him just like my aching lips wanted to. I would’ve too, but the way Blaise was looking at me stopped me right in my tracks. It wasn’t right the way he was looking at me.
“Potter, is it?” he laughed and walked up to Draco’s side. “You can’t be. I just received word that He has found the real one. So, the question is, who are you?” he eyed me just like he knew my secret.
I took a deep breath as Draco raised his wand towards me. “Whoever this imposter is, he will die tonight,” he said, his eyes leaking silent tears.
I shook my head, still not saying anything. Marcus’s eyes sent the message not to when I glanced over at him. He could tell that I wanted to just blow our cover completely. I watched as he slowly approached the back of the boys. Draco must’ve sensed it because he turned and hit him straight across the face. I gasped and my hands shot straight to my face, covering my mouth. Blaise looked at me oddly before looking back to Marcus, who was lying on the ground. He was out cold or so it seemed.
“Now,” Draco turned back to me, wand at the ready, “You are going to come with us. I don’t care who you are, but I’m done with your games.”
I shook my head and sobbed. “But I’m not playing a game.”
“It can’t be,” Blaise said, looking at me with a smile on his face.
“That’s exactly right,” Draco sneered. “It can’t be. I’ll grab the hostage, and you go get the brooms, Blaise.”
Blaise did as he was told and left us alone. I watched as Draco approached me. He didn’t seem like the old Draco. What had happened to make him so stone cold? I backed away, but he kept approaching me. I just kept walking backwards until I ran into a tree. I wasn’t exactly afraid of him, but I also didn’t want him to touch me. There was something wrong with him, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“You’re going to tell me who you are,” Draco put his wand to my throat, “or your life is going to end right now. I have nothing to stop me from taking your life now that mine is gone.”
Now, that scared the hell out of me.
“There’s no need to be frightened,” He breathed and pushed his body up close to mine. “I know you’re a girl, but I can’t be for sure who you are. Tell me. Now.”
I shook my head. He pressed the wand harder to my throat causing me to whine for a second. I looked straight into his beautiful grey eyes and saw no life. It was like everything had been sucked from him in the short amount of time that we had been apart. But what could’ve possibly happened?
“Your life?” I asked.
His eyes flooded with recognition before reversing to anger. “Stop talking. Just don’t open your fucking mouth. You got that? I’m tired of it and you’re just messing with my head.”
I shook my head again. “I’m not. I promise.”
“Stop.”
“What do you want me to say?” I asked, as he pulled away and looked over at Blaise, who was looking down at us from the top of the small knoll.
“She’s the hole in my head,” he muttered, looking up at me. “She’s the morning when it’s clear. She’s my night time fear.”
My heart skipped a beat. He knew it was me. He knew I was standing right in front of him. I knew that he recognized my voice. I smiled at him, which caused him to flinch a bit. I might have been the voice of the love of his life, but coming out of his archenemy must’ve been pretty weird. I reached out for him, but that recognition faded away once again. I would do anything for him to stay, the real him that I fell in love with.
“But she’s dead,” he said shakily. “She’s not-“
I couldn’t stop myself from closing the distance between us. I could take what he was saying. I was dead? The only thing I could do to stop myself from crying was to press my lips to his and let him know that I wasn’t dead. I was standing right beside him. Although, he could’ve meant that I was dead to him, meaning that he was angry with me. But why?
“What the hell?” exclaimed Blaise, which made me realize that I had made an impulsive move.
I was still not myself. I was still Harry, and I was kissing Draco. Before I could respond, Draco shoved me off him and backed clear away from me. He was shaking his head, obviously repulsed at the fact that Harry Potter had just kissed him even if it really wasn’t him. I desperately wished that I could take it back, that I actually thought about my actions before I let them run wild.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Draco asked, dropping his wand to the ground.
My eyes followed it as it fell, which caused him to look and pick it up as soon as it hit the ground. Once it was back in his hand, he pointed it back to me. I was about to say something when something came rushing out of the brush and tackled Draco to the ground. It took me a moment to realize that it was Marcus, who was beating the shit out of the man that I loved. Blaise and I both rushed towards the scene at the same time. Each of us grabbed an arm of Marcus and pulled him off, which wasn’t easy.
“Marcus!” I screamed and he looked at me.
“I don’t know what came over me,” he said, stunned himself.
I looked over at my Draco lying on the ground unconscious with blood coming from his lips and his nose. Blaise was already working on stopping the bleeding, which made me feel better. Draco was really lucky to have Blaise in his life, and so wasn’t Kam. That’s when I felt an unpleasant tingling sensation that started in my toes that time and traveled up to my eyes. I felt myself shrink and my hair grow long. My weight on top was back and felt much more natural. My hips then widened and my bottom filled back out. I then realized that I was in fact much heavier than Harry. I could feel the weight just clinging to me.
“Courtney?” Blaise asked as he looked up at me from his work. “I knew it had to be you.”
I nodded. “Why did Draco say his life was over? He also said that I was dead…he did mean me, right?”
Blaise shrugged. “I wish I could say that I understood every word of that conversation, but I can’t. I haven’t been around him all summer, and I came back to find him to be changed and not for the better. We haven’t had much time to talk, but I promise I’ll find out all the answers to both of our questions.”
“Thank you, Blaise,” I smiled at him as Marcus put his arm around me.
“Come on, sis,” Marcus said, just looking over Draco. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Wait,” called Blaise, standing and walking over to me. “Will you give this to Kam? I wrote it a long time ago, but I hadn’t figured out a way to give it to her,” he handed me a piece of folded up parchment that he had taken out of his pocket, which I gladly took. “I’ll make sure You-Know-Who doesn’t find out about this,” he winked at me as I let my brother lead me away.
“Have your wand at the ready, we have to get a little ways away before I apparate us,” Marcus instructed, taking out his own wand.
I grimaced. “About that…”
“What?”
“I kind of dropped it when we were thrown off the broom,” I filled him in.
He shook his head. “I can’t believe what I have for a little sister,” he chuckled before sending us both through that tight pipe with me thinking about Draco.
My poor, poor Draco.